A DECISION to rezone land on the corner of the Oxley Highway and John Oxley Drive, to permit the development of a bulky goods centre including a Woolworths Masters store, has been deferred until a resolution can be reached on traffic congestion issues.
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At its December meeting, Port Macquarie-Hastings Council was not prepared to proceed with the planning proposal for the area until further discussions with the Roads and Maritime Service (RMS) and Member for Port Macquarie Leslie Williams can guarantee plans are in place for a future upgrade of the Oxley Highway and John Oxley Drive roundabout at Wright’s Road.
Council says based on modelling, the Wright’s Road intersection will not cope with local traffic in peak flows alone within 10 years. With the addition of recently approved development, including the expansion of Port Macquarie Base Hospital, University of NSW clinical school, medical centres on Highfields Circuit, the proposed bulky goods centre and Charles Sturt University campus, the capacity of the intersection is reduced to just five years.
The proposed development will be located on the former 4.8 hectare site occupied by the Port Gateway Residential Park. Rezoning the area for bulky goods retail is consistent with council’s Port Macquarie-Hastings Urban Growth Management Strategy 2011 and will accommodate the total projected increase in demand for this type of zoning to 2031.
The developers have offered a $500,000 contribution toward an upgrade of the intersection which could be used to install metered signals or traffic lights to extend the life of the road. Council said metering signals, if accepted as an interim solution by the RMS, would still not address a necessary longer term upgrade of the intersection. In October, the RMS indicated it did not support council’s strategy to intensify development in the area.
Director of development and environment Matt Rogers said the recommendation to defer the matter is not ‘knocking the rezoning on the head’, but delaying a decision until council can receive better direction from RMS on the state government’s level of responsibility to upgrade its road infrastructure.
“I’m not confident recommending that council proceed with the planning proposal to rezone without further discussions with the RMS on the intersection,” Mr Rogers said.
Cr Trevor Sargeant said regardless of any upgrade to the intersection, traffic will continue to increase along Lake Road which already buckles under the pressure during peak periods.
“Do we need to look at how we release some of the traffic to the back of the hospital and revisit the outer ring road plan which was previously considered?” Cr Sargeant said.
Mr Rogers agreed that widespread traffic issues must be considered when addressing the issues at Wright’s Road.
“It is true to say the initial analysis will identify impacts affecting Lake Road and these will be an inherent part of ongoing discussions with the RMS. We can’t look at Wright’s Road in isolation,” Mr Rogers said, adding the outer ring road proposal is unlikely to be supported by the state government.
“We need to look at what to do with Lake Road and that is on the agenda of council’s infrastructure team.”
Cr Justin Levido expressed his disappointment that council has been left to address the issue without the support of the state government.
“They (RMS) don’t want any more development until this problem is fixed, but they then say it is all our problem,” Cr Levido said.
“This western intersection is one of the major entry points to Port Macquarie - we need a long term solution.”
Cr Intemann said it was important for council to affirm its commitment to work with the state government to find a satisfactory solution.